The Rise of “Hunting Widows”

These “hunting widows” do their own hunting during the deer season in the shopping malls of North Dakota.

For many of us male hunters, our wives or girlfriends usually don’t accompany us on our hunting adventures. Therefore, when we go out on a hunt our ladies become “hunting widows.” Although this has been steadily changing as the hunting arena continues to promote female hunters, Dawn Hilde and her friend Susan Neuenschwander represent another form of hunting that doesn’t involve the use of a bow, shotgun, or rifle. Instead, the two take their game using only a credit card.

Dubbing themselves as “hunting widows,” the pair, along with some other female friends and family, take to shopping as the deer season kicks into full gear with the onset of the rut. Their reference is, of course, due largely to the fact that many hunters often find themselves spending quite a bit of time in their stands or blinds during deer season.

“The boys will hunt, the girls will shop,” Hilde said.

For them, shopping is a means of keeping themselves busy while their husbands are out hunting. Local business owners have also begun to apparently pick up on the pair’s newest “form” of hunting and are even beginning to market towards other “hunting widows.”

The trend may very well catch on in your neck of the woods and perhaps some of you married, male hunters should have a look at the credit card statement before heading out to your stand. Your wife just might have declared herself a “hunting widow.”